Metal Gear Online
Metal Gear Online, commonly abbreviated MGO is an online multiplayer spinoff of the Metal Gear series. The game was officially unveiled in Kojima Productions' 20th Anniversary Part of the Metal Gear series. While Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops featured optional online game modes that were both dubbed Metal Gear Online, this incarnation of the online game was initially announced as a separate stand-alone product based on the Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay and setting, but has since been announced as part of MGS4. A stand-alone version has been announced for Japanese release, however it is unlikely it will see a physical release in the United States or Europe. Gameplay The game features 16-player online battles. Players can upgrade skills that their character can use such as hacking SOP, CQC mastery, enhanced lock-on, and more, all of which can be leveled up. The player can keep tabs on allies and enemies with nanomachines. Players have the ability to "hack" another player's character to steal information from their nanomachines, such as the locations of his/her allies. This is how the SOP system from Metal Gear Solid 4 is implemented as a gameplay feature in MGO. Beta testing An online beta test was released exclusively in Japan, which occurred from August 20, 2007 through September 3, 2007. The beta was only open to 3,000 players. In addition to announcing a ship date and hardware bundle for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, SCEA revealed that a beta for the game's online component will happen before the June release. MGS4 will come with a "starter pack" that will be expanded upon with extra content. In North America, the multiplayer beta test for Metal Gear Online was made available to download on April 16th. The beta test was originally scheduled to begin on April 21st and end on May 6th, but high levels of server traffic had forced Konami to delay the start of the beta until the servers were stabilized. On April 11th 2008, Konami announced an open Metal Gear Online beta for Europe and will be available for download from April 17 and will be entirely open to everyone who downloads it until May 6. On April 21, the open beta was launched in Japan and Europe. Due to mass appeal, many gamers applied to participate in the beta, but the servers were met with severe user traffic within the opening minutes, resulting in a system wide crash. The beta therefore, had been postponed in Japan and Europe, as well as the launch of the North America beta, so Konami could fix and stabilize the servers. According to the Metal Gear Online teaser website, the beta was aimed to begin at midnight of April 25th, with a comment mentioning a possible further delay if the solution hadn't then been resolved. Konami had also set the new beta test closure date on May 11, 2008. Release Metal Gear Online went live on June 12th, 2008, the release day of Metal Gear Solid 4. It featured all the same levels and gameplay modes as the Beta, as well as adding two extra stages, totaling five stages, and a new gameplay mode, totaling at seven gameplay modes. Gameplay Modes Ranks Maps Expansions Expansions add functionality, such as new characters and maps, to Metal Gear Online. Konami plans to release expansion packs periodically. The Expansions appear to be named after the theme's of each Metal Gear game that has been released. Gene Expansion The first expansion pack for Metal Gear Online, titled "Gene Expansion", was officially announced at Metal Gear Online's homepage and was released on July 17, 2008 at a cost of $11.99 US or $14.99 US with an additional character slot. Gene Expansion features three new maps, titled Coppertown Conflict, Tomb of Tubes, and Virtuous Vista; two new playable characters (Meryl and Johnny), each with their own special abilities; a new game mode called "Survival"; and a new reward system. The reward system will award players points for playing the new game mode which they can exchange for items to customize their character in the new Reward Shop. Players will also be able to create female characters. Also, the skills feature has two new additions: "Box Move" which allows the character to move faster while hiding in a box, and "Quick Recovery" that increases the speed at which the character can help teammates recover from being knocked out. Meme Expansion The second expansion pack for Metal Gear Online, titled "Meme Expansion", was announced on Metal Gear Online's homepage and was released on 25th November 2008. It costs £6.49 for British users. It comes with two new characters (Liquid Ocelot and Mei Ling) each with their own special abilities. Three new maps were released Silo Sunset, Winter Warehouse and Forest Firefight. In addition to this a new game mode was released called Stealth Deathmatch. Also included with the update was a slight change to the user interface and the Rosemary lobby replaced with the Meryl lobby. The Meme expansion does however require the user to purchase the previous Gene Expansion. Meme's new maps have also been added to the Survival mode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLmWPcZk9Ao Scene Expansion The third expansion pack for Metal Gear Online, titles "Scene Expansion", was announced on playstation.blog and will be released sometime in March. It will feature two new characters (Raiden and Vamp), each with their own special abilities. The Scene Expansion pack also features 3 new maps, titled Outer Outlet, Hazard Hourse, and Ravaged Riverfront. There are more details regarding the pack to come! Earlier Versions Subsistence The game is made up primarily of games in which players compete against each other for points. the following modes are featured: Portable Ops In the single player game, players will be able to recruit soldiers into their unit as part of the story. These soldiers will then be able to be used in the online portion of the game. However characters that die in the RC mode die permanently and can not be used in single player. These characters are then offered to the opponent, to become part of their team. Because of this you can surrender a match to save the rest of your unit. Characters that die in VR are not killed permanently. See Also * Metal Gear Online User Database * Metal Gear Online Maps References External Links * KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS EVENT SITE 2007 * Beta test website (Japanese) * PlayStation Blog entry * MGO teaser site Category:Games